


Future Second Chance Story

by peacehopeandrats



Series: Second Chance [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacehopeandrats/pseuds/peacehopeandrats
Summary: Storybrooke gets attacked by a creature Alice knows well and Grace might just be responsible.This was prompted by the summer NaNoWriMo prompts, back when they were prompting constantly during lockdown. It is much farther along in Gideon's life in Storybrooke. No family, just friends. I posted it on tumblr when I first wrote it, but never put it here.
Series: Second Chance [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591525
Kudos: 3





	Future Second Chance Story

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was to write about a character stuck inside and this just flew at me. ;) This was just a rough draft, written within a time limit, so it might change a bit when I come to this part of the story.

“Pull the other one.” Alice playfully shoved Gideon as they walked back to the shop from their lunch at Granny’s. He stumbled, but it was more an action made from the kindness of his heart than an actual loss of balance. Pushing him around was like trying to knock down a brick wall with your bare hands.

“I’m serious!” Gideon came back to her side, laughing. “Five people in the room and-” 

His words were cut off by a horrible screech, high and piercing, that made their hands fly to their ears. Gideon looked skyward, scanning the cloudless expanse, but his search was cut short as Alice yanked on his arm. She had heard that sound before and it was time to get the brick wall moving.

“Get inside. Get inside now!” Alice roared at him as she pulled, making him follow without question.

Together the pair made a dash for the pawnshop, though Gideon easily outpaced her. Key at the ready, he had the door open by the time she arrived and pushed her through first before shutting them in as he followed behind. He peered out the window at the surrounding buildings, amazement on his face. “What was that?”

“Trust me,” Alice assured him as she gulped in air. “You don’t want to find out.”

He turned to her, worried. “Which realm does it come from?”

“Wonderland.” Alice swallowed the word, feeling it harden in her throat like a chunk of ice. “I don’t know what it’s doing here.”

“Well the next question,” Gideon said, “is ‘does the whatever-it-is act as vicious as it sounds?’”

Alice began pacing the floor, hands wringing with worry. None of this made any sense. “Worse,” she told him as she crossed the floor. “The jubjub isn’t a thinking animal, it’s all… primal actions and instinct. Unless someone controls it, of course, but-”

Hands caught her shoulders and Gideon’s face came into her view. His gentle smile held her in place as he took in a visible, deep breath. “One,” he counted as he exhaled. “Two…” By the time his chest expanded the third time, Alice’s panic had calmed and her own smile began to mimic his, one side of her mouth quirking upwards to show him she was okay again. When his next question came she was ready to answer it. “Now. What’s a jubjub?”

“It’s a bird,” Alice told him. “A huge thing with a brightly colored face and dark body with white flecks. It’s got this… massive, blue tongue and he could probably lift your biggest Gargoyle friend with one foot and not bat an eye.”

“Goliath?” Gideon turned back to the window. “I doubt-” he froze as a dark blur swooped down the street, the last word dropping from him like a stone. The scream came again and he cringed, turning from the glass as if he were afraid it would break.

Alice moved closer and stared in amazement as the creature settled itself on the pavement, wings folding to its back, eyes darting from building to building. She knew what to expect, of course, but seeing a jubjub here, in Storybrooke, only made it seem bigger and more terrifying. The thing was like a massive, feathered dinosaur, sharp teeth gleaming in a bright yellow and red beak. She hated to think what it would to do anyone it found outside. “First time I’ve seen one so close,” she whispered as they watched it strut one way, then another. It was wild, all right, desperate for something.

Suddenly, the bird’s red plumed head jerked around, as if catching movement out of the corner of its eye. The jubjub’s beak opened and the blue tongue lashed out as it screamed again, red eyes flashing in anger. In one fluid movement, the bird was airborne, leaving scratches from its talons in the road as it took off.

“No, no, no.” Alice resumed her pacing. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“I think we’re safer inside. Besides, we have to find a way to send it back,” Gideon insisted. “Or stop whatever is happening to upset it.”

Alice froze and tipped her head at him, her curious nature getting the better of her. “What do you think would do that?”

He shrugged. “You’d have a better idea than I would, but it has to have either found a way here by magic or it has been here all this time and something changed to make it attack the town.” Gideon moved to the pile of books that he kept on the shop’s counter and scanned the spines, then lifted the curtain to the back room and went through every book there as well. He raised his voice as he crossed the threshold, obviously unaware that she was following him. “Tell me about it.”

“Well, they live in this dark place. It’s a valley that nobody goes to.” She closed her eyes, trying to force all of her knowledge to the front of her brain, make it either draw a picture in her head or come out as words. Either thing would work as long as she could describe what she knew. “When you see a jubjub, it’s either because someone sent it after you or something made it very, very angry.”

“It looks like ‘angry’ is a permanent thing with this guy,” Gideon mused as he tugged a book from the shelf and began to flip through it.

“For all the ones I knew of,” Alice confirmed. “Jubjubs have amazing memories, they’ll hold a grudge forever.” 

Just then a loud banging came from the shop’s side entrance and she jumped into the air with a scream. Gideon rushed to her side and drew her close, brandishing the book in his free hand. “Ever known them to knock on doors?”

Alice shook her head.

“Good then,” he said as he crept to the work table and exchanged the book for a small hammer that he used for furniture work. Alice eyed it suspiciously, one eyebrow raised, and Gideon shrugged. “Mother would _kill_ me if I used a book.”

“Might be better to take your chances with your mother,” Alice teased as she clung to him, following each of his steps with one of her own.

The banging became louder, almost frantic, as the two ducked from behind the curtain to eye the side exit. The shade was drawn over the window, but the sun’s light cast horrible, dark forms on its surface, creating a grotesque shadow puppet show that Alice was not at all interested in seeing a second time. The shapes twisted, sharp angles tipping one way, then another as the banging came again, followed by a softer set of strikes and the yelp of a girl.

“Hey!” came a familiar voice. “Let us in!”

Gideon almost fell forward as he released Alice and lunged for the door. “Jefferson!” In one swooping motion the man and his daughter were both inside, faces red with exertion and eyes wide with terror. 

“Thanks,” the hatter blurted out in a gasp. “Damn thing’s been tracking us.”

“You?” Gideon blinked at Alice, his mind undoubtedly running through their recent conversation. “Why?”

“No idea,” Jefferson said as he draped himself over the shop’s counter. “One minute we were eating turkey sandwiches, the next…” he waved a hand at the door, lifting it to the air before letting it flop dramatically to his side again. “We barely got out. I thought you’d know, so we came here.” He shot a look at Alice who only shrugged in response.

“Alice said the jubjub only acts like this when someone’s controlling it or when it gets angry,” Gideon told the other man, eyes narrowing in confusion.

The information wasn’t anything new to Jefferson, who stood and spun on his heel, hands raised to the ceiling as he gazed skyward. “What could I have possibly done to you?” He demanded to know. “Got something against turkey?”

Gideon sighed and stared at the pile of books he had rejected only minutes before. Anyone who didn’t know him could have easily accused him of willing the information within to drift from the pages through magical means and flow directly into his mind. “Have you done anything? Moved anything?” He reached for a blue cover near the bottom of the pile and opened easily to a familiar page, then flicked back to a spread of drawings and diagrams. “Animals, even ones from other realms, can be protective of territory, offspring, or items they find attractive.”

“Well, thanks,” Jefferson smirked, adjusting the frills of his clothing. “But that jubjub’s not my type.”

Alice watched Gideon’s expression flicker a little as he stammered to correct himself. In any other situation she would tease him mercilessly for the awkward exchange, but with the screeching growing louder, she decided to save her remarks for another time. “He’s right,” she decided. “There hasn’t been any random portals recently, so something has to have made the jubjub come out of hiding.”

All at once, Grace straightened herself, eyes growing wide. “Papa,” she said in a worried tone. “I think I know.”


End file.
